Review in Beat (Australia)

Edith Frost is the only woman that’s made it into the Drag City Songwriters Boy’s Club. Across the course of a couple eps and a couple albums, she’s shown herself to be a limber songsmith, her crooning cowgal odes simple little-ditties that are able to contour to different strands of sonic styling. After the Royal Trux duo of Adam & Eve (mis)handled production on the strange, shifting, stirring Telescopic, Frost hands over production duties to Drag City dude Rian Murphy for her latest outing, Wonder Wonder.

With tone captured by Albini, horns charted by Paul Mertens, and guests including cellist Amy Domingues and Chicago-strut soldiers Rick Rizzo, Mark Greenberg, and Archer Prewitt, it’s a really pretty, nice-sounding record. Her third album, it’s probably her best musical missive thus far. But that’s not simply because of the tone and the arrangements (although, they’re a big part), rather, it’s because it’s her best set of songs yet. Previous Frost records have often found one or two standout songs rising head and shoulders above the rest of the pack. Wonder Wonder is much more consistent, of much more consistent quality. Coming three years after Telescopic, one could surmise that the long lay-off allowed Frost to gather a strong collection of songs — a lesson that mediocre-record-machine Bill Callahan could do well learning. Frost is in fine tune-crooning form across this album, balancing out a wonderful collection of natty country ditties ("Further", "Cars and Parties", "Wonder Wonder") and soft sweetheart ballads ("Hear My Heart", "Easy To Love", "Honey Please") with assurance and grace.